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Photoelectrocatalytic generation of H2 and S from toxic H2S by using a novel BiOI/WO3 nanoflake array photoanode

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Abstract

In this paper, a photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) recovery of toxic H2S into H2 and S system was proposed using a novel bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI)/ tungsten trioxide (WO3) nano-flake arrays (NFA) photoanode. The BiOI/WO3 NFA with a vertically aligned nanostructure were uniformly prepared on the conductive substrate via transformation of tungstate following an impregnating hydroxylation of BiI3. Compared to pure WO3 NFA, the BiOI/WO3 NFA promotes a significant increase of photocurrent by 200%. Owing to the excellent stability and photoactivity of the BiOI/WO3 NFA photoanode and \({{\rm{I}}^ - }{\rm{/I}}_3^ - \) catalytic system, the PEC system toward splitting of H2S totally converted S2− into S without any polysulfide (\({\rm{S}}_x^{n - }\)) under solar-light irradiation. Moreover, H2 was simultaneously generated at a rate of about 0.867 mL/(h ·cm). The proposed PEC H2S splitting system provides an efficient and sustainable route to recover H2 and S.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2018YFE0122300 and 2018YFB1502001), Shanghai International Science and Technology Cooperation Fund Project (No. 18520744900), and the SJTU-AMED.

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Correspondence to Baoxue Zhou.

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Bai, J., Zhang, B., Li, J. et al. Photoelectrocatalytic generation of H2 and S from toxic H2S by using a novel BiOI/WO3 nanoflake array photoanode. Front. Energy 15, 744–751 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0775-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0775-7

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